Ubly village council crunches numbers

MATT TREADWELL

Published
7:00 pm EST, Tuesday, November 23, 2004

"The way I figure it, we are only short about $50,000. But the clerk and the treasurer say we are going to need more than $300,000," village President David Jaroch said. "That's a pretty big difference."

Despite that confusion, village leaders seem to agree the town is strapped for cash after spending more than $125,000 on a new police hall while also facing an estimated $67,000 in bills left on a new $186,000 well in addition to a $32,000 water system upgrade.

The new police headquarters on Bingham Street replaced the former facility on Queen Street - a 100-plus-year-old building.

And the village's new sixth well is being constructed to help the municipality meet Michigan Department of Environmental Quality water safety standards.

"We had thought we budgeted for those items and hoped we wouldn't have to borrow any money," Jaroch said. "It would have been great if it worked out that way."

Village Clerk Judy Messing and Treasurer Florence Schrader say the town spends about $50,000 in payroll and other regular expenditures each month and doesn't have enough cash left in the village general fund to foot those bills after March until August.

"There is $233,912 in that fund, period, as of today," Schrader said. 'That's not enough."

The council decided Tuesday that it needed to comb the village's financial records better before deciding on how much money it might have to borrow.

The board was confused about how it depleted the nearly $430,000 it had in its fund balance at this time last year.

"Where did that money go?" Jaroch asked. "I just don't understand how we could be off $300,000."

Council member Carl Osentoski said the village council should begin monitoring its finances with monthly line-item reports instead of balance summaries.

Messing and Schrader said that could be done and agreed to have line-item reports to the council concerning the past few months before a special December finance meeting.

Paul Wyzgoski, a bond lawyer with the Bloomfield Hills-based Dickerson Wright PLLC, joined the council at its Tuesday meeting to advise it about the money-lending process.

He said the board should decided how much money it needs to borrow before January, if it hopes to secure the loan by February.

The council set a 6 p.m., Dec. 27 special finance meeting to decide on a needed bond dollar amount an means to pay such a loan off.

Wyzgoski said the council should expect around 4 or 5 percent interest rate on an five- to 15-year bond issue.

"The residents are gong to have to pay for the new well and water system one way or another," Jaroch said. "Nobody should be alarmed or worry about any of this."

The council previously agreed Nov. 4 to seek up to $500,000 in bonds to help offset village operating expenses.

Messing said the town should need about $350,000 - an estimated payment of $38,000 a year for 15 years.

Also, at Tuesday's special council meeting, the board voted to spend around $12,000 on a used 1990 snow-removing machine formerly owned by the West Olive school district because its previous plowman has stepped down from the job and nobody has applied to take his place.